On Theology
As a life-long Christian and an ordained minister of forty+ years, daily, as I live and breathe, I live and breathe theology…
Theology, from the Greek theologos (theo– “god” + logos– “word”, thus, god-words or words about god) is the human endeavor to employ reason to think (to consider) and to speak (to communicate) about the One of whom folk variously refer as “God”, “the Creator of all that was, is, and is to be”, “the Holy”, “the Absolute.”
As “God” is a human word, it is a symbol that points to a reality and, therefore, is not the reality itself or God’s Self. Yet without the word we humans would find it difficult (impossible?) to consider and communicate our understandings of God, that is, who and what God is.
As theology is a human endeavor, it is inherently bound to the labor of thinking (considering) and speaking about (communicating) what it is to be human. For theology’s principal and indispensable assumption is that there is a relationship between God and human beings.
A final word, for now, on what I deem to be an amazing thing! As God, as Absolute, is unknowable in God’s fullness or, in other words, as God is beyond fullest human comprehension, all of us who delve into the field of theology, whether scholars or daily homespun Bible readers and everyone in between, always are and remain incipient theologians; ever at or near the beginning (and never at or near the end) of our exploration of who and what God is.
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 